2004 BL86 Meteorite heading close to Earth 26th January 2015

(Chelyabinsk meteor, Russia.  February 2013)

First up the wars, at this point in time, that are being fought is the residual cold war paranoia (Russia vs Europe/America) and the medieval "oil" death cult (Islamic state) are an embarrassment to humanity.  But, what the fuck, they're happening.  On-top of that is the appalling rates of pilot error (miscalculation = death) when computer systems have shown that they can achieve near perfect flying records, unless there is major electrical failure, computers will precision fly and land aircraft without the fatigue and flawed multitasking of a pilots brain.  In other words in our fast paced world, automated systems should be used to multi-task, with the pilots only monitoring. But after these tragic aircraft accidents in 2014 confusion is ensured, as you now have counter argument/s in which some believe that pilots are relying too heavily on computer systems, thus making them prone to incompetence.  That  particular argument or excuse sounds very weak.  Another major air-crash in 2015 comes down to pilot error and/or lunacy.  The airline industry will be in crisis.  This leads me to the Mars space-program, which in my opinion should be scrapped to allow a cheaper more efficient program, yes, we send robots to Mars, monitored via virtual reality here on Earth.  In other words WE don't leave the planet, as we won't cope too well with the eight year plus space journey (psychological and physically), and the costs to train a six to eight person team will not be worth it.  Sophisticated robots and advanced VR will do the job nicely.  If anything we should venture back to the moon and build bases there. 

  Where is all this leading too?  The cosmos must be explored via telescopes and efficient scanning technology, not only do we search for alien signals but also threats i.e meteorites.  This should be a top priority to build a defense system to protect the Earth, more so, us, humans.  Earth will always be here, a meteorite hits us now, even a smaller one, say half a mile.  It will probably take out (kill) hundred thousand plus people, depending on the locale of the impact, environmental and climate change after effects.  Point is, there needs to be a development of our priorities here.  Seems like the human race is struggling to work out what is the next play for us.  Heads up, the cosmos could be sending us the reality freight train.

From RT news:

A potentially hazardous asteroid, at least 20 times the size of the Chelyabinsk meteorite, will approach the Earth on January 26. The rock is expected to fly by at a distance of 1.2 million kilometers.
The asteroid, named 2004 BL86 by scientists, is estimated to be between 440-1,000 meters in diameter. 1.2 million kilometers is approximately three times the distance from the Earth to the Moon.
According to astronomers, there is no threat of the object colliding with our planet. The Goldstone Observatory, located in California's Mojave Desert, will observe the asteroid during its approach.
2004 BL86 was discovered on January 30, 2004, by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR), responsible for the majority of asteroid discoveries from 1998 until 2005, when it was overtaken by the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS). As of mid-September 2011, LINEAR had detected some 231,082 new objects, of which at least 2,423 were near-Earth asteroids and 279 comets.
A space object is considered potentially dangerous if it crosses the Earth's orbit at a distance of less than 0.05 AU (approximately 19.5 distances from the Earth to the Moon), and if its diameter exceeds 100-150 meters. Objects of this size are large enough to cause unprecedented destruction, or generate a mammoth tsunami in case they fall into the ocean.
When a meteorite burst above the city of Chelyabinsk in February 2013, the impact was estimated to be equivalent to 440-500 kilotons of TNT. But the Chelyabinsk meteorite was relatively small, about 17 meters in diameter. It disintegrated with a blast at an altitude of over 20 kilometers.